Walmart Replies to Our Complaint About Apeel on Cucumbers

I recently wrote executives at Walmart to protest their decision to coat cucumbers with Apeel preservative.

They had decided to save a few pennies on plastic wrap by making us EAT the preservative, rather than peel it off and throw it away.

I thought I’d share some of the highlights of CEO Doug McMillan’s assistant’s reply, as well as my own reply back to her.

At the end, I’ll give you the email addresses again, hoping you will let them know that you’ll be avoiding Walmart—not just for cucumbers, but in general—until and unless they prioritize our health over saving a couple pennies on cucumbers.

Executive Assistant Melissa said on behalf of CEO Doug McMillon that they decided to use Apeel's preservative because it has been approved by the FDA.

But then she said that the health and satisfaction of their customers are of “utmost importance” to them. So, they said they’d seek more information about Apeel’s manufacturing process–as the use of heavy metals and solvents I told them about seemed to be a surprise to them.

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Melissa very politely said that she knows I might source my cucumbers elsewhere, and invited any other questions and concerns to be sent to the customer support team

I wrote back:

Dear Melissa, and Doug:

We do not whatsoever trust FDA calling 5 metals and 2 solvents on our food safe, and I hope you will reconsider, as 100K's of people who care about their children's and their own health are about to hear about this partnership, and you'll be hearing from many of them.

You cannot choose the wellbeing of your customers if you're forcing us to eat hardened synthetic fats; chemicals in a proprietary blend Apeel has refused to disclose; and metals and solvents we are then forced to eat if we buy your cucumbers.

Apeel has been the subject of a great deal of social media virality and we ask that you reconsider this partnership rather than lose millions of dollars of business while probably also not extending the life of cucumbers either.

I and my large audience online WILL reconsider patronizing Walmart if you let me know that you choose to prioritize our and our children's health over saving a few cents on cucumbers.

(It's not that we won't be buying cucumbers elsewhere--it's that we'll be buying everything elsewhere.)

Apeel's founder has stated that his goal is that all the fruit in the world be dipped in his toxic concoction. My goal is to save people and children from being forced to eat toxic chemicals.

I'll be happy to do more content for my 18-year influencer brand if you change your mind about dipping your cucumbers in Apeel. Thank you.

Friends, please contact the decision makers at Walmart and also at Houweling, the huge Dutch produce company who has partnered with Walmart on this.

These are the key emails to let Houweling and Walmart know how you feel about Apeel-coated cucumbers:

frank.houweling@houweling.nl
info@houweling.nl
qc@houweling.nl
backoffice@houweling.nl
finance@houweling.nl
sales@houweling.nl
marketing@houweling.nl
reco@houweling.nl
purchasing@houweling.nl
warehousing@houweling.nl

Doug McMillion

President and CEO

Doug.McMillion@walmart.com

John Furner

John.Furner@walmart.com

(479) 381-6663

Do let us know what you hear, and together let’s make our voice heard to protect our ability to buy healthy foods without toxic additives we can’t even remove.

Please grab our wallet card here, of store brands who’ve stood with us and promised to avoid all Apeel-sprayed produce. On the other side of the wallet card, we also list store brands who refuse to answer us or who have been caught selling produce sprayed with Apeel.

We change the wallet card every time we get new information. You can get it for free, and print it yourself, or for a small charge, get it and 14 other GreenSmoothieGirl “Genius Guides” shipped to you, laminated, for help in being a healthy shopper and cook.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to be part of the resistance. If we expect someone else to do it, then I guess we deserve to eat vegetables and fruits coated with fake fats, solvents, metal–and actually who really knows, since Apeel Sciences won’t tell us!

So please take just a few minutes to write and/or call the decision makers in the list above. The GreenSmoothieGirl Army has accomplished a lot and we appreciate all you do to make our food healthier!

Big, big gratitude to those of you who talk to your grocery manager and employees, and tell them you need a commitment for no Apeel preservative, if you’re to continue to shop there.

If you’d like to see this article in video form, here it is: 

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